THE garden dedicated to Dr Tom Honeyman, the art lover who also secured the city the Burrell Collection, has had a £20,000 revamp in time for Glasgow 2014.

And the story of how Salvador Dali’s Christ of Saint John of the Cross came to our city is the story of dedicated art lover Dr Tom Honeyman.

Director of Kelvingrove Art Gallery between 1939 and 1954, he presided over a huge expansion of Glasgow’s art collections and cultural profile, with the Dali acquisition seen as his crowning glory.

On Saturday, the garden created in memory of this renaissance man was rededicated after a £20,000 revamp.

Honeyman was born in Glasgow in 1891. He studied medicine at Glasgow University before serving in the trenches during World War I. He returned from the front and, after a time practising medicine in Glasgow’s east end, moved to London to become an art dealer in 1929.

His tenure in the capital’s thriving art scene helped secure him the job of director of Kelvingrove.

Acquiring Dali’s religious work and the copyright to it for £8200 – less than the catalogue price – is what Honeyman is best known for.

But he also persuaded shipping tycoon Sir William Burrell to leave his collection to Glasgow and raised the profile of the city’s art galleries through successful exhibitions.

Honeyman was elected rector of Glasgow University in 1956 and was involved in the founding of the Citizens Theatre, then the Royal Princess’s Theatre.

His granddaughter Rosemary Bremner has spent six years campaigning for the Honeyman Memorial Garden in Kelvingrove Park, which first opened in 1972 – the year after his death – to be renovated.

The Honeyman Memorial Garden in Kelvingrove Park

Friends of Glasgow Museums raised £3000 for the project, with £1000 coming from the area partnership and the rest from Glasgow City Council.

Rosemary, 61, said: “He brought a lot to Glasgow. He got the copyright for the Dali painting and Glasgow has made a fortune out of that through postcards and all sorts of things.”

“I was there for the opening of the first garden and, 40 years on, it needed the revamp. The new garden is looking wonderful.”